At what point does the battery/alternator need to be upgraded?

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

I'm about to buy a new amp which will have me at about 1200 watts for my audio. Am I going to need to upgrade either my battery or alt or will I be fine? Also will doing the Big 3 help out at all even if I don't upgrade my battery or alt?

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[-01limited- 10+ year member]

If you're just running 1200 watts total you'll be fine. If you have a realllllly low amperage alt you might add a good battery in the back but on that you should be fine with the big 3.

 

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

An extra battery? Do you like hook up the battery under the hood's pos to the new battery's pos and neg to neg or something? Or how do you hook up secondary battery's?

And cool thanks.. it's not 1200 total though, that's just what I'm using with my audio gear, I have no idea how many watts the rest of the cars electrical gear uses. And at what wattage do people tend to need to get a high output alt or battery?

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

Big 3 for sure and yes you'll run.the wires from the front batt to rear batt.

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

There's no set point to where you need a high output alternator. The best thing to do us check your voltage at full tilt and see what you drop to. In my opinion anything below 13 volts should require one. And that's including having the big 3 done and an extra battery in the back. If your above 13 volts then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

yeah anything below 13 volts, I'd either add another battery if you feel like you won't upgrade power and are on a budget or if you wanna do it right get a high output alternator. once you get below 13 volts, your alternator is maxed out and its running on battery.

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

It's not that it's running on battery power alone the alternator just can't keep up with the electrical strain.

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

never said its running on battery alone. but we are saying the same thing.

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

never said its running on battery alone. but we are saying the same thing.

My bad misunderstood what you said. Op just get your at tested at full tilt and if it drops below 13 volts do one upgrade at a time.

 

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

I know this is going to be a completely retarded question, but what does full tilt mean? Like the volume on my head unit all the way up?

 

[Jakerrr 10+ year member]

Max volume music will be listened to is full tilt

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

I'm about to buy a new amp which will have me at about 1200 watts for my audio. Am I going to need to upgrade either my battery or alt or will I be fine? Also will doing the Big 3 help out at all even if I don't upgrade my battery or alt?

Just because an amp has a neon sticker on its case with "1200w" printed on it does not mean it's a 1200w amp. You also say "for your audio"; thanks for clearing that up for those of us who thought you might be using this amp to power your window regulators & wiper motor.

How about some specifics?

 

[kramer_212 10+ year member]

yep, if it goes below 13 i would say, mine went below 13 for the first time since i put in my latest system, going to charge all my batteries from now until tomorrow, and see if it does it again, havent charged them (without alt) in 2 months.

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

I got a cheap but beastly batt for u

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I would go ahead and get an alt and a nice under the hood batt. It's so much more piece of mind to do everything right.